Watching Michael Phelps and others win their olympic gold medals makes me thoroughly ashamed of myself. Their perseverance and commitment is awesome and commendable. They won't have had it easy, they won't have simply turned up and swum the speedos off the opposition without having put themselves through years of intensive training and hardwork. You can be sure they had bad days, difficult weeks, and months when things weren't going so well. But did they give up and reach for the donuts? Not likely. They just dug in deeper, swum harder and focussed better. So why am I feeling so ashamed? Basically because I traditionally give up as soon as someone says 'boo'. I grab the towel, step out of the water, and scuttle back to bed. In other words, I cop out.Why do I do that? Who cares... the point is I picked up self limiting beliefs somewhere along the line, and integrated them to such an extent I apply them to everything I do. They run my life script.In order to be free of the shame (which is a very low vibration) one has to be rid of the self limiting beliefs that hold us back. And that's the trick, isn't it? Identifying those beliefs. All of us have these little maggots in the mind, wiggling about chewing off new thoughts and ambitions as they try to grow. There's nothing they like better than a fresh, new hope. As soon as a glimmer of inspiration emerges, these burrowing little bugs set off to destroy it - stuffing themselves silly, until fully satisfied feeding off a mind that isn't free.Of course feeling ashamed creates the perfect environment for mind maggots. The little buggers thrive in negativity. If they can live in a pool of bleak thoughts, they are fully primed to spot a nice, juicey shoot of joy as it struggles to push it's head above the slimey surface. But it's a new day. We've not had this one before.We might not get another tomorrow. So I shall pep talk myself up, get a grip, go out and try and enjoy it! But I think I shall start by awarding myself a gold medal - just for getting out of bed! :-)